Sonora Review is run entirely by graduate students in the MFA program and undergraduates at the University of Arizona. Sonora Review accepts submissions in flash prose, fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. We only accept unpublished work. Typical response time is three months.
PROSE (Fiction / Non-Fiction) should be typed, double-spaced, and include page numbers. We are unable to read prose submissions that exceed 5,000 words. Include a cover letter with your name, address, phone number, and email in the header, and a brief biography.
POETRY (Up to 5 poems per submission) should be typed and submitted in one document, with the titles separated by commas in the “Submission Title” field. You may abbreviate the titles if they do not fit. Include a cover letter with your name, address, phone number, and email in the header, and a brief biography.
Flash Prose should be typed, double-spaced, and include page numbers. We are unable to read submissions that exceed 1000 words. (Due to their length and higher frequency of publication, these pieces will most often be published online, but may also be considered for publication in our print issues.) Include a cover letter with your name, address, phone number, and email in the header, and a brief biography.
$1000, online publication, and publication in Issue 81 of Sonora Review (Spring '24) will be awarded for our annual fiction contest. Our fiction contest this year will be judged by Maggie Shipstead.
Maggie Shipstead is The New York Times-bestselling author of three novels and a short story collection. Her novel Great Circle was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction.
This year's contest theme is MERCY. Who is mercy for? Where do you find it? When is it needed? Can what is written be an act of mercy and to whom? To oneself? To another? What do we carry? Each other? Little mercies like gemstones in our pockets. Larger mercies that keep us holding together. We are open to creative interpretations of the theme. Send us your best.
Fiction should be typed, double-spaced, and include page numbers. We are unable to read prose submissions that exceed 6,000 words. Please include a cover letter with your name, address, phone number, and email in the header, and a brief biography. We ask that you remove your name or any other identifying marks from your manuscript before uploading.
We welcome previously unpublished work from writers of all backgrounds and identities, particularly including people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, members of religious minorities, people outside the United States, and all others whom traditional publishing has historically excluded. We believe your stories are valid stories, and we want to consider your work!
$1000, online publication, and publication in Issue 81 of Sonora Review (Spring '24) will be awarded for our annual nonfiction contest. Our nonfiction contest this year will be judged by Maggie Nelson.
Maggie Nelson is the author of several books of prose and poetry including The New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner, The Argonauts (2015), The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning, and Bluets. Her work focuses on feminism, queerness, aesthetic theory, philosophy, and more. Nelson, who is a professor of English at the University of Southern California, has received fellowships from MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. She was named a Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
This year's contest theme is MERCY. Who is mercy for? Where do you find it? When is it needed? Can what is written be an act of mercy and to whom? To oneself? To another? What do we carry? Each other? Little mercies like gemstones in our pockets. Larger mercies that keep us holding together. We are open to creative interpretations of the theme. Send us your best.
Nonfiction should be typed, double-spaced, and include page numbers. We are unable to read prose submissions that exceed 6,000 words. Please include a cover letter with your name, address, phone number, and email in the header, and a brief biography. We ask that you remove your name or any other identifying marks from your manuscript before uploading.
We welcome previously unpublished work from writers of all backgrounds and identities, particularly including people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, members of religious minorities, people outside the United States, and all others whom traditional publishing has historically excluded. We believe your stories are valid stories, and we want to consider your work!
$1000, online publication, and publication in Issue 81 of Sonora Review (Spring '24) will be awarded for our annual poetry contest. Our poetry contest this year will be judged by Maggie Smith.
Maggie Smith is the author of the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change, as well as Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and Lamp of the Body. Smith’s poems and essays are widely published and anthologized, appearing in Best American Poetry, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, and elsewhere. In 2016 her poem “Good Bones” went viral internationally, and Public Radio International called it “the official poem of 2016.” Smith’s next book, a memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, will be published by One Signal/Atria in April 2023.
This year's contest theme is MERCY. Who is mercy for? Where do you find it? When is it needed? Can what is written be an act of mercy and to whom? To oneself? To another? What do we carry? Each other? Little mercies like gemstones in our pockets. Larger mercies that keep us holding together. We are open to creative interpretations of the theme. Send us your best.
You may submit 3 to 8 pages of poetry. Your submission should be typed and submitted in one document, and titles of multiple poems should be separated by commas in the “Submission Title” field. You may abbreviate the titles if they do not fit. Please include a cover letter with a brief biography, your contact information, and any other pertinent information about your submission. We ask that you remove your name from your manuscript before uploading.
We welcome previously unpublished work from writers of all backgrounds and identities, particularly including people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, members of religious minorities, people outside the United States, and all others whom traditional publishing has historically excluded. We believe your stories are valid stories, and we want to consider your work!
Please include your name and address below and we'll ship Issue 77 to you! **WE ARE UNABLE TO SHIP INTERNATIONALLY** Please expect about 2 weeks for delivery.
Please include your name and address below and we'll ship Issue 75/76 to you! **WE ARE UNABLE TO SHIP INTERNATIONALLY**Please expect about 2 weeks for delivery.